AZA regularly handles complex high-stakes healthcare cases in Houston courts and nationwide. We represent a broad array of clients in the healthcare industry, including medical groups, hospitals, individual physicians, pharmacies, and medical device inventors and sales representatives in a variety of cases like breach of contract, trade secret theft, patent infringement, partnership and corporate governance disputes, payer and provider litigation, and non-compete claims.

We’ve also recovered tens of millions on behalf of government entities related to Medicare and Medicaid under the False Claims Act, including the largest settlement on record for Medicare fraud over concurrent surgery claims.

AZA also represents patients in class action proceedings around the country alleging that hospitals used pixel tracking technologies on their websites and patient portals, resulting in mass disclosure of confidential health communications to advertisers such as Google and Facebook. To date, AZA has helped patient classes obtain monetary relief worth “substantial 8 and 9 figures,” as well as injunctive relief eliminating the tracking technology.

Below is a representative sample of some of our recent victories.

• In 2026, on appeal from a jury verdict in California, AZA’s appellate team obtained a near-total defense win at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing a $18.3 million judgment against a medical device manufacturer for claims of trade secret theft and patent infringement. AZA Appellate Win Negates $18.3 Million Decision in Penile Implant Trade Secret Case
  

• In 2024, AZA won a $25.6 million breach-of-contract jury verdict in Harris County on behalf of doctors’ group Fondren Orthopedic Ltd. against healthcare giant HCA Healthcare. TopVerdict.com ranked it the largest Harris County 2024 verdict in commercial litigation, breach of contract, and economic loss. AZA Wins $25.6 Million Jury Verdict for Healthcare Client
  

• In 2024, working with the federal government for five years, AZA represented a whistleblower in a False Claims Act qui tam case alleging that Houston surgeons at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center let unqualified trainees perform parts of heart surgeries while surgeons billed Medicare for two or three concurrent operations. The case resulted in a $15 million settlement — described by the government as the largest settlement on record for Medicare fraud over concurrent surgery claims. AZA’s whistleblower client received $3 million of the settlement. United States ex rel. Morgan v. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center et al.
  

• AZA regularly counsels physicians on how to navigate post-employment restrictive covenants, including defending physicians in emergency hearings and trials. In 2024, AZA defeated Kelsey-Seybold’s application for a temporary restraining order and, after a 2-day hearing, its application for a temporary injunction that would have prevented AZA’s client, a nationally recognized orthopedic surgeon from performing surgeries at her chosen hospital based on an overly broad non-compete.

• In September 2023, AZA won a $153 million award on behalf of a group of radiologists against United Healthcare resulting from United’s breach of the parties’ longstanding participating provider agreement.

• In December 2021, AZA won a $62.65 million jury verdict in Las Vegas on behalf of emergency room doctors cheated by United Healthcare affiliates.  This was the third AZA win for TeamHealth and a long-anticipated showdown with the largest U.S. insurer that may alter the landscape of dozens of other similar cases around the country.  Texas Lawbookfeatured the Nevada case as the top story in Top Commercial Litigation in 2021. See also AZA Victorious in $62 Million Nationally Watched TeamHealth Trial Against Insurance Giant United Healthcare. See also “Nevada Trial Culminates with Jury Ordering UnitedHealthcare to Pay TeamHealth Doctors $60 million in Punitive Damages.”

• In June 2021, AZA successfully represented emergency room physicians in obtaining a $19.1 million Houston jury verdict against a large insurance company in the first case in the nation to litigate emergency room physicians’ out-of-network pay from private insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act. The case was covered in the media  by Texas Lawyerin ‘Designate a Villain’: The Legal Strategy That Led a Houston Jury to Award $19M to ER Docs in Insurance Dispute (subscription required), by Law 360 in Jury Awards $19M To Doc Staffing Co. In Reimbursement Row  (subscription required) and by Texas Lawbook in Houston Jury Awards TeamHealth $19.1M in Trial Over ER Doc Pay (subscription required).

• In August 2020, AZA successfully represented emergency room doctors in obtaining a $9.4 million jury verdict against an Arkansas insurance company in a case in which the insurance company grossly underpaid emergency room doctors. AZA was hired six days before trial. A similar case will be tried soon in Harris County. See the Texas Lawbook story on this win Six Days’ Notice, Six Witnesses, Six Jurors, 150 ER Doctors, Two Ticked Off In-House Counsel and a $9.4M Verdict(subscription required).